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Motive sought for Colorado shooting

TONY EASTLEY: Police in Colorado are hoping that a computer taken from the home of the alleged gunman who opened fire on movie goers at Aurora on Friday night may provide some insight into the man's motives.

The alleged gunman, 24 year old James Holmes, threw two canisters of noxious gas into the crowd and then began firing into the panicked audience.

Twelve people were killed, 58 wounded.

The US president Barack Obama has flown to Colorado to meet the families and friends of victims.

Holmes is being held in solitary confinement for his own protection according to police.

Correspondent Jane Cowan is in Denver, Colorado.

Jane good morning, the US president is visiting today. What's he planning to do there?

JANE COWAN: Well Tony it's designed to be a low key visit. The president will be on the ground for only two and half hours. He isn't expected to make a speech. He won't be attending a public vigil that is planned for the community here tonight.

He is meeting privately though with families who lost loved ones in the cinema and with local leaders.

And really he's following in the footsteps of other presidents in responding to these shootings that have become such a part of American life. Remember Bill Clinton went to Columbine and George W Bush had to go to Virginia Tech as well.

And psychologists do say that this kind of thing does help, having the president in this role as consoler in chief, because it really allows the leader to kind of put his arms around the nation as it grieves.

TONY EASTLEY: Jane in cases like this the most asked question is often why. Do we know anything more about the young gunman who inflicted this carnage and why he might have carried out these killings?

JANE COWAN: Not a lot Tony. Twenty-four year old James Holmes is being held apart from other prisoners in the jail here. He is said to be not cooperating with the investigation at this stage.

Police have managed to grab a computer now that they've managed to diffuse all the explosives that it was rigged with. They are hoping that will give some clues as to his motive and also to how he learned to make these booby traps.

But at this stage there are still more questions than answers about how he went from being an honours student who was pursuing a PhD in neuroscience to someone accused of building bombs in his apartment and then killing 12 people in the movie theatre.

TONY EASTLEY: Jane, how is the community there coping with this?

JANE COWAN: It is struggling Tony. It's struggling to make sense of something that does not make sense. There is now a palpable sense of anger.

The local police chief Dan Oates broke down on television this morning. He was talking about how you train, after 9/11, you train for something like this in America but you never expect to have to actually do it.

He has been in the last few days expressing anger too at the apparent targeting of police who would have likely been the ones to walk through the suspect's front door into this booby-trapped apartment.

From the Archives

Around 500 Indigenous people fought in the First World War, and as many as 5,000 in the second. But many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diggers who made it home received little or no recognition for their contribution. On Anzac Day, 2007, the first parade to commemorate their efforts and bravery was held in Sydney. Listen to our report from that day by Lindy Kerin.